Delimiting electoral districts is an expensive endeavour involving many tasks. A large amount of information must be collected, verified, and synthesised into a unified redistricting database. It is often necessary to hire and train a large staff to create the database. Once the line drawers have completed a redistricting plan, the plan must be evaluated and possibly modified. And the new redistricting plan, once adopted, must be implemented. Implementation of a redistricting plan often requires the production of a large number of maps and reports. Changes must be made to voter registration lists, and voters must be notified of new district assignments. In addition, election officials may have to redraw voting areas and relocate polling places. Computerisation, which can make the redistricting process more efficient, can also make the redistricting process more expensive.
Staffing
The use of temporarily assigned staff may be cost-effective, given the relatively short-term nature of a redistricting project. Costs will rise if the staff require a great deal of training. Extensive training will almost certainly be required if computers are to be used for redistricting.
Creating a Redistricting Database
The creation of a redistricting database requires the collection and verification of a great deal of information. This includes population data--either census counts or voter registration data--and detailed and accurate maps of the entire territory to be redistricted. If the database is to include political data, election results must also be collected. Although information for a redistricting database may be stored at a central location, it is more likely that information will have to be collected from many different local or regional governmental offices. Contacts with local and regional officials may also be necessary to verify the information.
The cost of creating the redistricting database will be contingent on the availability and accuracy of the necessary data and maps. It will also depend on the size of the territory to be redistricted and the level of geography chosen as the basic 'building block' for creating districts. These building blocks may consist of whole counties, or villages and towns, or they may consist of smaller units of geography such as voting areas or even city blocks. The smaller the building block, the more data there is to collect and verify, and the more expensive the redistricting project becomes.
Adding political information to the redistricting database will also increase the costs of database preparation. If election results are not readily available from a single source or if they must be obtained through a separate acquisition process, data collection will be more expensive. If the political data are not reported at the same geographic level for which population data are available, election and population geographic units will have to be matched in order to create comparable geographic units. This matching procedure will add to the costs of preparing the database.
If computers are to be used, and the data and maps are not available in computer readable format, they will have to be converted. Keypunching election results and other data to create a computerised database is an expensive undertaking. The cost of digitising maps is even greater, but will be necessary if geographic information systems (GIS) software is to be utilised. These costs can be averted if data and/or maps can be obtained in electronic format on disk, tape, or CD-ROM.
Drawing Electoral District Lines
Although the line drawing phase of a redistricting project involves tasks that can be tedious and time-consuming, the line drawing process itself is not particularly expensive. The only significant costs are those associated with the public inquiry process once a redistricting plan has been proposed.
Implementing a Redistricting Plan
When a final redistricting plan is adopted, maps and descriptive reports of the plan must be produced and disseminated to local and regional government officials and election officers. This activity may be less expensive if computers have been employed to draw the redistricting plan, since computers can generate the maps and reports.
To implement the plan, election officials must adjust registration lists and notify voters of their new district assignments. Election officials may also have to redraw voting areas and relocate voting stations. These tasks may be less expensive if computers have been used for redistricting.
Computerising the Redistricting Process
Computerisation can make the redistricting process far more accurate and efficient, but it can greatly increase the cost of a redistricting project. A wide range of computer technology can be employed for redistricting, but the more sophisticated the technology, the more expensive the process is likely to be. The major costs of computerisation will be the purchase of software, creating a computer readable database, and hiring and training qualified staff.
The computer hardware needed for redistricting is not particularly expensive. Pentium desktop computers can be used for most redistricting projects. Costs can be saved if computers are already available.
The price of computer software ranges widely. The most expensive options are specially designed or customised GIS redistricting software. Less expensive options are commercial spreadsheet or database programs. But these less expensive options are also less efficient.
Hiring and training staff to operate computers can be expensive. Consultants can help by selecting hardware, integrating redistricting software with existing hardware, designing or customising software, and training personnel on computer operations. But consultants can also be expensive.
The most expensive part of computerised redistricting may be the creation of a database. Much depends on whether data can be obtained in a computer readable format. If not available electronically, population data and political data, if used, must be keypunched. Keypunching data to create a computerised database can be expensive. Digitisation of maps for GIS software is especially costly.
Conclusion
The price tag for redistricting varies enormously. New Zealand, for example, spends relatively little to redistrict every five years--NZ$1.89 million was budgeted for the 1998 redistribution. The latest redistribution in England cost £5 million. In the United States, enormous amounts of money are spent to redraw congressional districts every ten years. Of course, the redistricting process in the United States is very decentralised, and the amount of money each state spends varies considerably. Some states spent more than a million U.S. dollars to draw congressional districts in 1991; other states spent less than a tenth of that amount.
